Continuous noise from the World Trade Center construction site is getting unbearable, residents say.

It has been horrific and it has been ongoing, said Pat Moore, who lives at 125 Cedar St. The people who were victimized on 9/11 continue to be victimized six years later.

Consequently, Community Board 1 was interested to hear the Department of Environmental Protections recent suggestion: Build a plywood fence around the site.

Charles Sturcken, chief of staff for environmental compliance at the D.E.P., mentioned the idea at the Nov. 15 meeting of the Quality of Life Committee.

It would do a lot to mitigate noise coming from the construction site, he said.

The city requires most construction companies to build plywood fences around their sites, but the Port Authority is exempt from city rules and generally uses chain-link fences, Sturcken said. He urged the board to keep the pressure on the Port Authority to build a plywood fence, and said he would work with the Downtown Alliance as well.

Moore, who did not attend last weeks meeting, had mixed feelings after hearing about the suggestion.

Im all for anything that would work, she said. But I have no idea if that would help.

At an earlier meeting, a Port Authority representative told Moore, chairperson of the Quality of Life Committee, that a wall wouldnt do any good. Moore is also concerned that the wood fence could be a fire hazard. And then theres the problem of constructing the fence, which would presumably add to the noise Moore faces on a daily basis.

The Port Authority is planning to meet with C.B. 1 this week. Steve Coleman, a Port spokesperson, said the agency has continually worked with residents to address noise complaints.

Steven Abramson, who lives at 114 Liberty St., is skeptical about the fence.

I doubt that would help, he said.

Abramson likened noise to cold air, which wends through any opening and spreads under, over or through barriers.

It might blunt some of [the noise] from street level, Abramson said, but from up higher I dont see how it could.

Mark Scherzer, a 125 Cedar St. resident, would want an expert opinion before deciding whether to support a plywood fence.

My lay instinct is that its probably not going to be effective, Scherzer said. Its hard to imagine that they would [build a fence] that would be tall enough to do anything.

Scherzer lives on the 13th floor and still hears the high-pitched beeping of trucks backing up, loudly and clearly. If that noise is already echoing through the sites deep pit, Scherzer questioned how much extra protection a short fence would provide. And if the Port Authority built a taller fence, that might be a hazard in and of itself, Scherzer said.

Limiting the hours of work would be more effective, he added.

For now, the constructions hours are anything but limited.

The Port is working 20 hours a day in a crunch before the Dec. 31 deadline, when it must turn part of the site over to Silverstein Properties to build Towers 3 and 4. The agency faces a fine of $300,000 a day for going past the deadline.

They just care about meeting the deadline, and to heck with quality of life, Moore said.

Residents have struggled to adapt to ever-changing construction schedules that start at all hours of the night.

People have surrendered their evenings, but they dont like to surrender their midnight-to-6 a.m. shift, Scherzer said. [Construction noise is] definitely intruding on both ends.

To cope, Scherzer spends as much time out of town as he can, and uses white noise when at home. You do, to some degree, learn to sleep through this stuff, he said.

C.B. 1 member Barry Skolnick questioned the allowed noise levels at the Quality of Life Committee, but many usual city rules dont apply to Port Authority.

There is no [noise] level that Port Authority is required to be below, said Josh Rosenbloom, director of city operations at the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.

Between the jackhammers that shake the building and the rumbling, beeping trucks, all at 5 a.m., Moore has had enough.

I just dont understand why they cant do something to mitigate the noise, she said. Well, I do know why: They dont care.